Just One Thing

In this episode, I’ll talk about temperature. It's really important to step back and look at this, especially at the beginning of the year. I want you to decide for the year 2022, do you want to be a thermometer or a thermostat? This is a very important question to ask. What would your answer be? Keep listening along to find out the difference between them.. believe me, I never thought about it th...

In this season of giving, I think it's important to step back and think this concept through. As business owners, we're so focused on what we are getting right now.  We think about getting the money. We focus on getting the car done. We must be able to pay our bills. We are so focused on the receiving part, the getting part that we get lost in it. The idea of giving sometimes can be foreign t...

My question is, are you a Grinch? And all of us want to say, “No, of course, I'm not.” But there's a big difference between how you think you're showing up and how people are perceiving you. And I am the king of this. We lie to ourselves all the time. We try to hide and pretend things are okay when they're not. And people can see it a mile away. If things are eating at you, if you're coming in a l...

What I want to talk to you about is the word “No.” We avoid no at all costs. I'm going to tell you that “No” could and should be your friend. “No” does so many great things for you. It allows you to reflect. That's the first thing you should do with a “No.” Not avoid it. Not pretend it didn't happen or don't blame somebody or something for it. That's not what the “No” is there for. Press play to h...

What I want to talk to you about is the secret of accountability. Why do I think this is a big deal? Well, telling yourself all the amazing things that you're going to do, whether it's professional or personally is really awesome. And at the same time, it's completely useless. Why? It's because you lie to yourself all the time. It's because you judge others by their actions, and you judge yourself...

What are we talking about today? We're talking about getting knocked down. What does that mean? You all know what it means. It means getting knocked on our butts. For me, it's been very real lately. Just about the end of the summer, I started having problems with my back and it got to a point where I couldn't walk without a walker and was on some pretty heavy medication. Through the love of other...

I want to talk to you about an equation, a very simple equation that changed my life. Listen, I know some of the last two talks I've heard some of you. I get it. I understand this works for me. And some of you say, “That'll never work for me, Lucas. That's too simple.” Well, that's the whole point. People change their lives with simple, small decisions.  We don't make giant decisions that cha...

I want to talk to you about something that I tell my staff about. I tell my family about it. I tell everybody about it. There are three circles on a page, and then there's everything else. There's a small circle. The circle of control, a medium circle, the circle of influence. And then that big sheet of paper has everything else on it. Years ago, I was talking to Rick, and I was talking about all...

It sure is a beautiful day here in Western North Carolina. This is Lucas Underwood and I'm going to be standing in for Rick today. What I want to talk to you about today is extreme ownership. Now, this is something that's made a tremendous difference in my business. And it's something that I learned from watching a Ted Talk on Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. Jocko was commander for the Navy Se...

I want you to just think about two words. What if. There has been a lot of stuff going on here personally lately. For those of you that don't know since August, I've been having back issues.  I've got disc degeneration and I have four vertebrae that have no disks. I also have two nerves that are pinched in my back. I'm not telling you this because I'm looking for sympathy. I'm not, I got this...

Today’s word is Erosion. What's the one thing that comes to mind when I say the word erosion? Based on that one thing, do you believe that erosion is a good thing or a bad thing? I want to tell you what I think of when I think of erosion. I think a Grand Canyon. Anybody that's ever been to the Grand Canyon knows how absolutely beautiful it is. And it's breathtaking. I've been there twice. I've bee...

Today's topic is four words. I grew up in this industry in what I call the age of compliance. This is where you didn't ask questions. You were told to do something, and you did it. But today this is the age of commitment. This is where you're not going to force people to do things. You must help people understand why they want to do it with you. That's really the whole thing today. So, I want to t...

Recently, I was watching a Netflix special on “The Secret.” You know what I'm talking about? This is the law of attraction. If you listen to it in its truest sense, a lot of people walk away from it thinking that all they need to do is think about something and it will manifest itself in their lives. I believe in the law of attraction. I don't believe in the theory that if you think about it, it w...

There's so much going on all the time. People seem to think that they are losing their memory. There are some really simple hacks that can help you with your memory. So, my goal here is to give you five simple hacks that will help you with your memory. There were studies conducted that showed when you go to classes like I put on at ASTE you’ll remember less than 10%  after 30 days.  I'll...

There's a really cool sentence I'd like to start with, and I would like you to finish it. And it starts off with “Life is…” You finish that sentence. Write the first thing that comes to your mind. Now go on writing the first thing or at least get it on your mind.  To see where I'm going with this please keep listening along!

I found out on Saturday that a very dear friend of mine, Bob Greenwood, passed away suddenly on Thursday. He's been a coach for many years, and I'm telling you right now, the industry is a little sadder place today because of his passing. I want you to step back and recognize a couple of different things. Number one, when somebody close to you passes, I think it's an opportunity to celebrate their...

We've been talking about the brain lately. In the last episode, I talked about how it seeks to conserve energy and it wants to keep you alive to survive.  I talked about the comfort zone and how that really hurts you. The comfort zone is not a bad thing. It can be a good thing. It's a good place to rest and recharge. But don't live there. Don't get fooled into the false sense of security in t...

In the last two episodes, I talked about your brain and how it actually works against you. I talked about how it conserves energy and what to watch out for which is good enough and I’ll do it later. What I’ll talk about now is the survival aspect of your brain. The things that your brain inherently wants to do to keep you alive. The first thing is the comfort zone. Listen to this episode to hear,...

In the last episode, I talked about good enough and how dangerous that term is for your business and your life.  Good enough is the steppingstone to mediocrity and not one of us is ever going to create the businesses that we want by being mediocre. Step up and go for that Plus One mentality that I talked about.  I want to tell you something very simple in this episode.  Later is not...

The biggest threat to your business is your brain. It's your brain, my brain. It's the biggest threat to each of our businesses. Let me explain why.  Your brain is designed to do two and only two things. The first is to keep you alive. The second is to conserve energy. That's it. It’s a survival tool. What I want to talk to you about is an area where your brain is not your friend. I want you...

I want to talk to you about the word example. It's really important because every one of us is an EXAMPLE. We are either a teacher or we're a warning. It's not that you're all in or not in or anything like that. That's not it at all. We are both good examples and we're warnings. We all have both within us. This is why I am so against hero worship. Hero worship is dangerous because you put people o...

What I want to do is help you with three really simple success hacks that will completely change your business. The first hack that you want to be aware of is how you position things in your brain. If you're looking at something you're going to do and you think, I've got to do this. I don't want to. It's a pain in the butt, blah, blah, blah. What kind of energy do you think you're going to bring t...

If you got our messages, emails, or texts, you're going to notice that the word of the week is “Crap.” That is actually not the word I wanted to use. I wanted to use the word “$hit.” Brenda and Shannon both nixed the word. So, they said I can use the word “crap” or” poop.” And I said, fine! I’ll use “crap.” The reason I said “$hit,” is to get your attention. What I want to talk to you about is Own...

I really want to talk about the final aspect of invoicing. And I want you to realize it's a contract. Your invoice is a contract. Yes. You're going to get paid. Yes. You're going to have parts and labor on there, but you want to make sure it's complete. You want to make sure it's telling a story. In other words, what was the customer's concern? What was the cause? What was the correction? Was it c...

I will continue talking about invoicing, but I know, it’s hard to get excited about that. Most people think profit lives on the P & L, but it doesn’t. Profit is reported on the P & L, it lives on the invoice. So far I’ve talked about connecting with your clients and not trying to impress them. And then to be CURIOUS, to make their agenda, your agenda, and to ask questions, to really unders...